Borrowing from a Cheech and Chong Christmas schtick called “Santa Claus and His Old Lady,” Ljuba alleged distribution of her magical tender in quantitative doses to numerous politicians, including Mayor John Bencivengo.

“A little bit for the reindeer. A little bit for Santa Claus. A little bit for Santa Claus. A little bit more for Santa Claus.”

Mad money made Ljuba’s world go round. She dished out cocaine and cash in dribbled drabs then watched those investments multiply.

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You get the point. Ljuba, a deep-pocketed insurance broker with used car salesman persistence, stood to make a lot more money than she gifted.

A $12,500 payout allegedly landed in Bencivengo hands through Ljuba accomplice, Robert Warney, who admitted on an FBI wire that he laundered $5,000 in small doses to the Hamilton Twp. mayor.

Warney served as Hamilton’s director of community and complinace before his resignation and confession of laundering money for Bencivengo. Warney will be sentenced on Dec. 5.

Ljuba said she bought influence with her $12,400 loan/bribe monetary contribution to Bencivengo as Warney.

Ljuba trial testimony increased tension in an already taut political corruption plot by saying that she bought Warney’s allegiance with thousands of dollars and that the former Hamilton Twp. administrator spent his windfall profit on cocaine.

The insurance broker shocked a courtroom with an allegation that a former company handed out bags of coke for Ljuba to cull favor of any Hamilton Twp. official who sniffed around in Atlantic City at the annual League of Municipalities meeting.

Ljuba had concocted an elixir of personal success by paying out thousands of dollars throughout several New Jersey towns, money and gifts that secured insurance contracts for her former company, Allen Associates and other employers.

Ljuba said she made straw contributions to a number of Hamilton Twp. pols and school board candidates. Ljuba testified that she bribed Joy Tozzi with $10,000 between 2005 and 2007, in exchange for her vote for Allen Associates. Other gifts included a family trip to Disneyland, clothing, furniture.

And behind Curtain No. 3? Show her what she won, Johnny! A new car. Well, Ljuba alleged she helped Tozzi buy a van.

Ljuba said she had Warney, and former school board members Anthony Coluccio and Tozzi hooked on gifts. Warney and his wife, according to Ljuba, enjoyed a Royal Caribbean cruise, plus another Mexico getaway. Warney allegedly received two $5,000 payments followed by $10,000 more.

Even when individuals moved out of influential positions, Ljuba admitted that she kept them close in case she needed them in a future gambit. Ljuba wagered thousands for million dollar insurance contracts.

Marliese. Show us what other contestants have claimed.

Hamilton School District Business Administrator Joseph and Kathy Tramontana enjoyed an all-expenses paid trip to The Islands, Ljuba alleged, although that excursion appeared more like a BFF present provided by everybody’s favorite insurance agent.

The Tramontanas’ major gift involved Ljuba from the outset alerting them that she had struck a deal to wear a wire for the Feds.

Sex owns a chapter in this sordid look into a town once described as “America’s Favorite Hometown” where any red-blooded American should raise a family.

Oh, by the way, booze runs like a tributary throughout Hamilton Twp.’s fall from grace.

Ljuba admitted a past transgression about an affair with a former boss but other Hamilton Twp. sexcapades are talked about.

Several politicians said they stepped toward Bencivengo with warnings about his new lifestyle made possible with a separation from his wife followed by a hookup with a young woman named Lauren Auletta.

What began as an investigation of Mayor Bencivengo morphed into a wild political adventure.

This story involves corrupted government leaders who lined up to meet this woman with a trunk filled with cash, cruises, hotel room payouts, cocaine, clothing, and just about every vice known to humankind.

They will be parting gifts for most of the takers.

— L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Reach him at laparker@Trentonian.com.